Blood Runs Thickest
by FantasyFlier
Summary: Ketsueki, a member of an all but extinct clan, the boy who loves his father more than his home, where hidden masters pull all the strings. OC AU Story.
1. Chapter 1

_"HELP!" A woman's cry. _

_The man holding her adjusted his grip slightly to give her a reassuring squeeze before picking up his pace._

_As the couple reach the hospital, the receptionist asks the male, "Hello, welcome to Konoha Hospital. Please state your-"_

_"MOVE!" the woman practically hollers before her voice broke out into another scream. The man swiftly moves with the woman and two surgeons through the hallways into a plain, white, room where he lays her down gently. He eyes her swelled stomach, eyes widening in realization._

_The surgeons stand by for the possibility of an emergency c-section while they doctor is telling her to push and making no real effort to help, the man is racking his nerves and even chewing his colored fingernails, wondering what will happen after._

_Finally there is a break in the scream, and the doctors hand the baby boy to the mother, and she holds him close to her breast and presses his ear to her heart, the smiles and cries, saying "He's so beautiful, he's so beautiful," repeatedly._

_Then she abruptly stops and the baby is wailing._

_The doctors tilt her head up, feel around her neck, press their ear to her mouth and nose, and place their stethoscopes on her heart, hearing and feeling no sign of life left in her._

_They turn to the man, and one of the doctors says, "We're so sorry..."_

_But the man has left, and the baby—Ketsueki, named by his father-- is gone._

_Just after this event, a man's relative is getting ready to go to bed when he hears newborn-sounding crying in the kitchen. He wonders what it could be, and when he gets into the white-tiled room, there is a newborn child now wailing on the glass table in the center with a rolled-up scroll by its side. He unrolls is and sees it's blank. He bites his thumb and draws his blood across the scroll, and kanji appears, fading in._

_Hello Sensei._

_I need your son to take care of Ketsueki for me. As you know I cannot, and his mother…she's died._

_-Your 'little prodigy'_

_His eyes widen, and he calls his son. "Kenji! Get in here!"_

***

I'm twelve now. I live with my foster parent, have no idea who my father is, but I know that my mother died after giving birth to me.

As I roam the training field, walking home, I wonder why Kenji won't tell me who my father is…and what other secrets he's keeping.

***

_Ketsueki sprints home after school and bounces up and down on the kitchen table, with the exuberance only a five-year old has._

_Kenji smiles and laughs. "What's up squirt? Whoa, calm down!"_

_"Kenchee, Kenchee!" Ketsueki says excitedly, mispronouncing his caretaker's name. "Who were my parents?"_

_Kenji sits down and clasps his hands together quietly and rests his chin on them, giving his foster child an odd look, as if examining him. He smiles and said, "They were extremely skilled shinobi, Ket."_

_Ketsueki makes a cute sigh and says, "Ken-CHEE, I know _**that**._ But __**who**__ were they?"_

_Kenji grins, stands up and ruffles the kid's hair. "When you're ready, kid."_

***

I run in the door and Kenji's there waiting for me, with dinner on the table. I wolf it down and grin, before he gets the chance to ask me how my day was. When he asks, I smile and imitate him. "When you're ready, dude," and we both start laughing, although I know he was serious at the time.

"No, seriously, Ket. What did you do today?"

I sighed. "Training again. Sensei is right…I need to practice my genjutsu more. But I'm only twelve, aren't I?" I can't even use my kekkei genkai around people, because Kenji says it's dangerous…and I can't find out where it's even from because Kenji doesn't want me asking to arouse suspicion, and he won't tell me either. "Besides, who cares if I can't use genjutsu? I know how to recognize and release it anyway," I finish.

Kenji sighs too, and tells me the usual. "All areas of training-"

"Are equally important and vital, I know, I know," I finish for him after cutting him off.

"Look, Ket, I've another meeting with the Hokage today…so I want you in bed by sundown, okay?"

I nod and smile, knowing I should obey him.

***

------

Danzo looks up from his papers at the council meeting. He looks at the man who is about thirty-one years old. "So you are the foster parent of Ketsueki Uchiha?" He asks with authority. The man nods subtly.

"Very well. And I assume you know why we have called you here? To report on the boy's skills?" Danzo asks.

Kenji nods. "He says he is strong in all but Genjutsu, sir."

Danzo stands up. "It's not enough! You know why we are interested in him and we need to know EXACTLY what he has been doing. He has his father's talent as well, does he not?!"

Kenji sits a little bit lower in his chair. "Then go watch, sir. I cannot as I must cover up all his tracks and there are too many for me to have extra time."

Danzo sits down again, and regains his calm and nods. "Very well, I will send one of our ANBU to watch him tomorrow at his training. You may leave now."

Kenji leaves the room, and Danzo and the two village elders are talking. "Who shall we send?" they ask each other.

They talk for what seems to be endlessly.

------

***

I'm laying in bed, about to fall asleep when I hear someone walk in our door. The steps are lighter than Kenji's, though…

My heart beats a little faster, because I know if it's a criminal I won't be able to defeat it.

As the wooden door to my room creaks open a bit, I hold my breath and tense my muscles, poised and ready to run.

A woman wearing a mask and with purple hair and a somewhat long sword—an ANBU, I realize—walks in slowly. "I know you're awake, Ketsueki." Her voice is rough yet calm.

I am speechless, so my mouth just hangs open. I get ready to jump out my window, still in my bed.

"I'm not here to hurt you…just…"

I hear the door open again and this time it's Kenji's footsteps.

The ANBU curses and tells me half a sentence. "Don't trust the —"

"Ket? You asleep in there or talking to yourself?" Kenji's voice calls from the kitchen, a little suspicious.

The ANBU is gone, and I am fast asleep.

***

The next day I train until sunset. As I'm walking through the training field heading home, I see an ANBU practicing some REALLY cool techniques—A red chakra spiral that looks like those things that people hang out of their windows that spin and it looks like it goes up and down—but this one is sideways.

I walk up to him and politely ask to learn it. He smirks and just tells me to watch again.

I open my red eyes without him seeing and I look at what happens with his chakra…and I keep trying it, even after he's left.

I hold out my arm and push my chakra outwards in the spiral that it's supposed to be, but it's not colored.

I stand in front of one of the Sakura trees, and practice and practice until the tree falls. As it falls I hear a crackle of leaves to my left, but as I whip my head towards the sound, as fast as it came, the clues were gone.


	2. Chapter 2

It's been two years since the suspicions were aroused in my head, almost all by Konoha. I've tucked each one inside my head, but most seemed to be nothing. But, as all my mentors have said, "Any little thing can amount to a larger difference."

Which is why I've decided to take action. There was no question in my mind on whether I should or not. Kenji's been keeping secrets from me, and some Jonin here look at me as if I'm a criminal. They do nothing, however. And I know it's some kind of setup when I begin walking around the forests, woods, and the fields where ANBU are carefully placed, performing some jutsu that I've never seen before.

I'm in my room coming up with a plan at the current moment. Staring out my window on a sole stool, watching the thunder and lightning outside somehow calms me, while the rain, I feel, expresses some kind of thought process to me. I see the world in odd ways—which is the reason I typically am the victor in tight situations.

I think I'll ask Kenji again, who my family really was. I trust him enough to protect me and care for me, but as for reliable, I can't exactly say. Half the time I ask a question, it's two words and then his lips are pursed and he decides to go into his room. This, now I notice, is unoccupied. And why would he disappear to there anyway? Why not go out for a stroll like he used to when I was a child?

It's my day off from training and Kenji is probably at another meeting. The Hokage must trust him…so maybe they are in on it too.

I creak open the door and tiptoe in the room, as if he's out just down the hall. Before I know it I'm in his drawers and under his mattress looking for something that could help give me some kind of lead. I open a filing cabinet and there is a manila folder, neatly labeled 'Ket'. I open it, but there are no papers inside and there are two numbers: 12 and 4.

The only thing I see in the room that could be like coordinates, which I am assuming these are, are the floorboards. But they only run one way. I use my hands' lengths to measure the width of one floorboard. It's about just one of my hands in width.

So I stand at the door again, and walk 12 of the distressed spruce floorboards, and measure my way four of my hands. As I reach the spot, I step on it and it sags slightly and creaks. _Jackpot,_ I think, and smirk. I lift under the lonely square and there are about ten envelopes, each with different information inside them.

I carefully stuff a couple papers under there to give it the effect and illusion that there is paper underneath, and I creep back to my room and stow them in one of my clothes drawers—because the laundry is one of the things that I have to do around our house.

I go back in to look for more, but to no avail. As I am walking out of the room, I stumble on another loose board and trip over a stray wire into the wall. It sags, setting off a trap, and a stream of fire is set spearing at me, and it stabs my back, the flames licking at my skin, consuming it. I take one of Kenji's dusty books and bat it out, but it's a bit too late.

The center of my lower back is stinging and I still feel as if the flames are gnawing away at my bones, but I know it's not. I've had plenty of bad burns before, but I am somewhat glad the flames hit me. If they missed and got somewhere else in the room, Kenji would find out. I walk back down into the kitchen and pretend to try and be cooking something for lunch—but failing. Cooking isn't one of my skills.

I am a good liar. My caretaker will never know what happened. But what happens next is a bit too much for me. I hear slow footsteps up to our door and see a lock turning. Why is he home so early? I can't get over the pain this quick, but I know what to do.

As Kenji walks in, I cry out and clutch my back, which relieves some of the pain. "I half-cracked it again!" I am leaning over looking at my feet. I straighten my back with a groan and make it look like I'm realigning the misplaced vertebrae.

He chuckles, and I ask him why. He responds, "Nothing, it's just that that spot on your back—" he stops, and I wait for him to finish. "It reminds me of an injury I got back when I was a child, Ket." _Yeah, right. The only injury you're concerned about is the one I'm going to give you when I find out exactly what you're hiding from me, _I think with an intent to wrestle the information out of him---

Whoa. I'm not that type. What am I thinking? And before I know it, the words come out of my mouth. Not in the way I would have intended them to.

"Kenji. who. were. my. parents." I say with a hint of maliciousness.

His eyes avert mine and I feel like I am the adult as he looks at his feet. "Another time, Ket."

My mouth won't stop now. "Another time? It's been FOURTEEN YEARS, KENJI! HOW MUCH LONGER DO I HAVE TO WAIT TO BE READY?" I practically scream.

Kenji's eyes widen, and I don't know why—and then he darts to his room and locks the door.

_Click._

***

Well, since Kenji won't tell me, I should go examine those letters and papers now. I lock my door as well, knowing it'll do nothing. If he wants to go into my room, he'll just smash it down. But it should give me enough time to examine them.

I quietly rustle the papers and shake the first envelope. There are two papers inside it. One is addressed to Kenji, and the other to an unnamed man or woman—I can't tell. I look at the one addressed to Kenji.

_Kenji. It's me._

_How is he doing?_

Gee. Some letter. I mean, if this person—I'm assuming my father, who has calligraphic writing that looks almost flawless—would write letters to Kenji, why not me? And why wouldn't they be longer? I take a look at the one Kenji sent back…Whoa. Why would he keep a copy of a letter that he sent?

As I read it, it's full of lies.

_Your son is doing fine. He's been so jubilant lately. Yesterday, as I go to the store, he hangs on to my leg and won't let me go._

It goes on further, but I don't bother to read more. I never did that. I never did ANY of these things. The paper is yellowish now, and warped, so I suppose it's about ten years old.

The next sheet is crumpled up and looks old, as it is already turning yellow, maybe five or four years since this has been looked at.

_Kenji? It's me again. How is your cousin faring?_

_-Father_

This one's handwriting is different—it looks as someone tried to write it with half an eye open. I take a look at the reply and I am not surprised.

_He is doing fine. Healthy and skilled, and completely ignorant. He doesn't suspect a thing. And he probably never will._

His FATHER? Back up, letters on that stupid page. So I am related to Kenji? Makes sense…we hardly look different. I have hair that looks black in a certain light but it is usually bronze-looking, and his is practically completely black. We have the same fair skin on the pale side, and we both can make our eyes turn red. I suppose I shouldn't be shocked that we're related.

All the other letters are pretty much the same. But why would Kenji keep the letters that he wrote as well? I am taken aback by what my mind tells me. _He has been making up my whole life, keeping secrets from me. And he needs the letters to keep up the charade._

And then I think about why he ran straight to his room. Right after that, there is a knock on my door. "Ketsueki, get out here this instant."

And it dawns on me.

He knows I have the letters.

***

I have to think quickly, and the only solution I know is to jump out my window and run. I should probably be back after dark and he'll be waiting for me. But I know I need some time alone for the moment.

I stash the letters under our house, through a small dug hole made between the dirt and the wall of the home and I walk to the only place I know for answers: The Library.

***

I reach the library casually, and I stroll in past the librarian, who just nods his head at me and keeps on doing his work. I don't know how the system works as I've never been here, so I go back up and ask the librarian if he knows where any books on kekkei genkai are. He points me in the direction, and I find an enormous book, black and dusty. I blow the dust off it and begin to find what I'm looking for.

I know there's a quicker way, but I don't exactly remember from what they taught us in school, something in the back of the book. I flip there regardless and there is a few pages labeled 'index', so this is where I should look. I search 'red eyes', but there is only 'red' and it lists a few page numbers.

I go to the first one and there is a picture of someone whose face is red. What on Earth….?

After a couple more trials, I find what I'm looking for. To my misfortune, most of the page is burned, and now I'm certain that this is the right page. Kenji probably burned it. I look for the capitalized words, because I know that it will be my answer, the name of the kekkei genkai and who it belongs to.

The only key words I find are _Sharingan……see flow of chakra…._ And finally: _Uchiha._

So my name is Uchiha Ketsueki… or to know what it means… _Uchiha Blood._

I stop there and go home.

***

I walk home and Kenji has his arms crossed and is tapping his foot. I say sarcastically, "Gee, I wonder what I did wrong." This time I don't regret.

"Ketsueki. You do not go into my room and steal my things. Anymore. And if I find out one more little disobedience, I will not hesitate to leave you."

_Boy, wouldn't that make me happy? _I smirk. I would try and kill him but I have no idea how much more skilled he is than me. "Uchiha Ketsueki," I repeat, like velvet on my lips. "I am a member of an almost-extinct clan? And so are you and your stupid father," I continue, and he scowls. "I know you're going to ask how. It's a magical place called the _Library,_" I say.

"And now that I know, why don't you tell me who my father was." I activate my...Sharingan… to detect movements before he acts.

He starts to say no, but I shove him into the wall and hold a fireball in my hand. I jam it into his stomach and with my other hand; use the chakra drill that ANBU taught me two years ago. I then fuse them together and it is two spirals, moving up in a straight line towards his neck.

Before he slumps to the ground, he tells me what I've wanted to know all my life: "Uchiha---Itachi."

What kind of monster have I become?


	3. Chapter 3

_Uchiha. Itachi._ Those are the only two words that run through my mind. I know who this guy is. He is the S-ranked criminal responsible for the murder of his clan—mine. But that doesn't stop me from knowing who he is and finding out what he's like.

I don't know what on Earth I should do now. Wait for Kenji to wake up and then what? I can't just leave—I don't have a permit or anything close to the sort.

I sink against the wall in my room and wonder what on Earth is going on with me. Why I attacked Kenji, and why I am so irritable these last few days. And then I know.

I love my father.

***

In the morning at daybreak, Kenji wakes up with his shirt twisted and burnt. He leaves the house with lust in his eyes, and storms off towards the Hokage building. Determined to find out more, I follow him five minutes later.

I am walking towards the Hokage's estate and see all the happy children playing. I feel something click in my heart and then it begins to hurt me. This is the way I should have been raised, shouldn't it have been?

As I enter the large red building, I realize I need to have an appointment to get up there, so instead I scale the back wall and finally I am on a spiral staircase. Looks like this will be the long way.

I follow the maze—technically it's not a maze, it just has a bunch of turns—of hallways into the room with the sixth Hokage's seal and press my ear to the door. A lot of people are rustling and then I hear the voice of the man who runs this village and then Kenji reporting on me. So, looks like he's got the whole village controlling my life. What a shock.

"He has found out his heritage and has become violent—a threat to even me," Kenji says in a formal tone.

I then hear murmuring from the others and then the Hokage's words are barely audible. But I hear a couple.

_"Ultimate…Weapon…of Konoha."_ Although the words are broken up, I still hear that he's talking about me.

So more truth slaps me in the face and tells me that I am going to be the ultimate weapon used by Konohagakure.

I gasp, and then clap a hand over my mouth. I might as well just slam on the door and tell people someone's listening. So I leave the building as quickly as possible.

***

At home I am devising a plan to get out of the iron grip that this stupid village has on me. I am so angry I can't even think insulting words, all I can do is yell. Thank goodness that Kenji isn't here.

I am so offended by everything that's ever happened to me: the techniques strategically placed around me, the letters, the revealing of whom I am and who my family was, and the changing of my attitude, which I now know is most definitely not hormones.

And it makes me want to do more. It gives me the burning desire to just…just…just… my thoughts trail off as I am almost done devising a plan to get out of here. But my train of thought is interrupted as Kenji walks through the door. We give each other a discerning glare, and then turn our heads away.

In a cold voice he asks me, "What's up? You haven't broken something today yet? Or are you intent on hurting me again?"

I smirk and tell him, "Oh, of course not, I'm not interested in hurting you."

Then my plan clicks into place.

"I'm intent on _breaking_ you."

And my violent attacks are held back as I feel two strong men who aren't wearing the standard Konoha uniform grab me from behind and inject something into my burn. The world goes black, and before I go unconscious I wonder if I will ever wake up again.

***

My eyes flutter open and I am lying on the kitchen floor. Whatever they put into me sure worked, because it is nighttime and I suspect I've been out for more than a day.

Kenji is sitting up at the kitchen table eating his lunch. I notice he hasn't made any for me as I stand up. Not that I am surprised, and I don't care much because I don't feel hungry.

Without a word, I walk up to my room to think.

While in my room, I go over my plan. I am going to—well, why'd I need to go over it? I've worked on it long enough, I think.

So I make the walk over to the Hokage's building and apply for a permit.

A permit for travel.

***

On the form I add that I would like the permit for training—of course they want me to be a weapon, so naturally if I want to travel for training purposes, they have to agree. Under age, I fill a fourteen, and attach a photo of myself. And I reluctantly write my name: Uchiha Ketsueki.

I slip the form in a box, and now I just have to wait. And I am going to retrieve the mail each day—NOT Kenji. And I will follow him everywhere—he is not spoiling this for me.

***

After days of waiting, I finally get the reply. And it is one I hoped for, but I didn't see this next thing coming. I will be accompanied by a village trustee. _So, how do I lose this person,_ I think and groan. I pull the permit out and it says I will begin my travel tomorrow at dawn. Looks like I'll meet this ANBU soon.

I leave the rest of the mail where it was so that Kenji doesn't suspect anything.

And I walk into the house without a word, and move to my room to pack, with a grin on my face.


End file.
